Usha Vance revealed that one way she maintains a semblance of normality amid her family’s new life in the spotlight is by patronizing a popular wholesaler that has publicly defied her husband’s boss.
The second lady told NBC News in a video interview released on Monday that shopping at Costco is an integral part of her life outside the public eye, saying that visits to the retailer with her children are a “family tradition.”
“We have our neighborhood shops. We have our Costco membership,” she told journalist Kate Snow when asked about her family’s daily life living at the Naval Observatory in Washington.
“You have a Costco membership?” Snow asked. “You understand why people wouldn’t think that, right? That the second lady would be going to Costco.”
“I could see that,” Usha, 40, replied. “But it’s an adventure. I take my kids, we go, we have all our favorite things that we get, they pick their lunchbox items from there.”
“It’s just sort of a family tradition,“ she added. “It’s the kind of stuff that you don’t want to let go when you have a family life, and you move into something like the Naval Observatory.”
Usha and Vice President JD Vance have three children: Ewan, 8, Vivek, 6, and Mirabel, 4, with a fourth child, a boy, due in late July.
Costco—under the tutelage of its newly appointed CEO, Ron Vachris—has taken steps to oppose the administration since President Donald Trump took office for the second time last year.
The wholesale giant has notably maintained its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies despite Trump and MAGA’s push to eliminate DEI “wokeness” across American workplaces.
Costco also risked government blowback in December when it joined dozens of other companies in suing the Trump administration over tariff refunds ahead of the Supreme Court’s ruling on his global imposition of tariffs.
Two months later, SCOTUS determined in a 6-3 ruling that Trump’s haphazard tariffs were not authorized under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, vindicating the company’s bold move to bet against the federal government.
The second lady, who was registered as a Democrat until at least 2014, also mentioned in her NBC News interview that she considers herself a trusted adviser to her conservative husband, despite them not always seeing eye-to-eye politically.
“Sometimes I have thoughts that fit very comfortably into one side or another. Sometimes I have views that are way more idiosyncratic,” she said. “And it’s a world that I think is actually rather accepting of that, since everyone knows that I really care greatly about JD’s success.”
